Webinars

Pluripotent Stem Cells - How to Raise the Quality of your PSC Culture

PSCs represent an important tool in a wide range of applications, including basic research, disease modeling, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine. As stem cell cultures are very sensitive and respond to the smallest influence, stable culture conditions are crucial to maintain reliability and reproducibility of experimental data. In this educational webinar we will look at the different cultivation parameters, which can affect the viability and proliferation of PSCs during expansion. Join us to learn more about how to assess the quality of your stem cells and to preserve their pluripotency.

NGS Made Easy - 5 Ways to Improve Your NGS Library Preparation

Next-generation sequencing sample preparation is a labour-intensive process, which requires experience, precision and accuracy to generate high-quality NGS libraries. This webinar will enable you to understand the most common pain points with NGS library preparation and show you how to develop lab strategies that guarantee reproducible NGS results and increase overall lab productivity.

You will learn how to improve your NGS library preparation step-by-step and if switching from manual to automated solutions makes sense in your lab.

From cell seeding to analysis - Getting the best out of your cell-based assay

The assessment of cell health and cellular responses after experimental manipulation continue to be a very important aspect of experimental biology. Reproducibility of cell-based assays is one of the key points when it comes to reliability of experimental data. Despite of choosing the appropriate assay type, there are many more factors to be considered to decrease data variability.

In this webinar Eppendorf and Promega are joining forces to optimize your assay results. We will have a look at the complete cell culture workflow and discuss measures you can take to get the best out of your cell-based assay. Furthermore, practical tips and tricks to avoid common pitfalls will be discussed with one of our most experienced Cell Culture Application Specialists.

Cell Culture Scale-Up Using Stirred-Tank Single-Use Bioreactors

For cultivation of mammalian cells in biopharmaceutical research and manufacturing, single-use technology possesses several advantages to autoclavable material. Bioreactor scalability is critical to streamlining the adaptation of culture volumes during process development and manufacturing.

In this webinar, we discuss several scaling approaches, such as constant tip speed, kLa, and power number-based scale-up. Data will be underlined with two case studies.

Sequencing of RNAs from extracellular fluids, including serum and plasma, is a fast-growing area of biomarker research. The need to process small quantities of samples is increasing as early detection strategies become more effective and less invasive biopsy strategies are adopted.Moreover, the rapidly changing landscape of molecular testing points towards a need for minimizing sample input and preservation of sample for future testing.

This webinar provides insights into important factors that affect NGS library quality when using challenging samples such as cell-free Nucleic Acids (cfDNA and cfRNA). It also outlines strategies to overcome these negative effects as well as highlights automated liquid handling as an option to reduce human errors and increase productivity.

Learning Objectives:

Learn strategies to overcome difficulties in processing NGS libraries from challenging samples such as cell-free RNA

Good culture for your cells - Best practices for preventing contamination

Are ethanol and antibiotics the best measures to prevent microbial contamination? Contamination is an everyday challenge in cell culture labs. Undetected or ignored contamination endanger the reliability and reproducibility of experimental data. Get to know the most effective methods to detect mycoplasma and to fight against the common types of contaminants. In this educational webinar you will learn how to recognize and identify different types of contaminants in cultivated cells. We will discuss how to apply aseptic techniques and preventive hygiene and give practical tips for preventing contamination by incorporating standard procedures into your daily culture practice.

This webinar will enable you to understand the most common pain points with NGS library preparation and show you how to develop lab strategies that guarantee reproducible NGS results, and increase overall lab productivity.

By demonstrating protocols of NGS market leaders, including Illumina® and an introduction to the easy-to-use Eppendorf epMotion software – in an attempt to reduce the fear of liquid handling robots being difficult to use – you will learn how easy it is to implement ready to run automated NGS library prep protocols.

New for Old – A Webinar for BioFlo® 110 and BioFlo®/CelliGen® 115 Users

Are you using a BioFlo 110 or BioFlo/CelliGen 115 control station for your microbial fermentation or cell culture processes? Join our informative live webinar to learn how you can make your laboratory future proof while saving on investment by reusing parts of your existing equipment.

The BioFlo 120, successor of the well-established 110 and 115 controllers, comes with advanced features while allowing you to keep your existing vessels. Converting to the new system is easy and lets you benefit from

Push-button auto culture modes

Flexible operation using glass or single-use vessels

A scalable expanded working volume range

Universal connections for digital and analog sensors

Key Learning Objectives:

Learn about the details and benefits of the new control station compared to your existing unit

Get to see how easy conversion is, including research examples and customer voices on a successful transfer of an existing bioprocess

Culture of 3D Cell Aggregates in Perfusion

Three-dimensional (3D) cell aggregates are of great interest for many applications, including disease modeling, drug toxicity assessment, and manufacture of stem cell-based products. Stirred-tank bioreactors are promising culture systems for 3D cell aggregates, as they allow efficient establishment and maintenance of cell aggregates, process monitoring and control, and process scale-up to larger volumes. Furthermore, they can be operated in perfusion mode, which allows 3D cell aggregates to be sustained longer than in traditional batch cultures.

This webcast will review a research example for process development with the human tumor cell line H157, cultivated in stirred-tank mini bioreactors as 3D cell aggregates.

Learning Objectives:

Learn about the challenges and benefits of perfusion cultivation for stem cells and 3D cell models

Gain insight on the impact of impeller geometry on cell growth and aggregate formation

Handling of viscous liquids - Basics, Techniques and Tricks

Viscous liquids are a challenge in every lab that deals with them. Depending on how viscous a liquid is, pipetting is either impossible or it poses several problems that significantly reduce accuracy, precision and processing speed.

In this Webinar, you learn about the basics of viscosity, how to measure it, about different types of liquids and what influence viscosity has on your pipetting results. You also learn how to prevent problems with viscous liquids by using different pipetting techniques and appropriate instruments. Get some helpful tips and tricks from one of our most experienced Liquid Handling Application Specialists and find out how you could even pipette honey.

Switching from manual to automated NGS library preparation

The NGS library preparation process is labor-intensive, requiring experience and attention to detail over hours. Eppendorf consumables, such as our Eppendorf LoBind® plates, and our thermocyclers have aided many laboratories to achieve great results. To further help you excel and streamline your workflow, Eppendorf’s automation solution, the epMotion® 5075 NGS provides a perfect addition to other Eppendorf solutions. This easy-to-use liquid handler comes with a special software, accessory and consumable package for ease of use in your lab.

Key Topics:

Your advantage: Time-consuming optimizations and setups have already been done in collaboration with market leaders, including Illumina®. So, you are ready to start and can leave all the tedious pipetting and complicated handling to the robot. Of course, we are more than happy to share the expertise achieved in working with the manufacturers and customers alike in this webinar.

Key Learning Objectives:

What are common considerations when planning an NGS experiment?

How Eppendorf Products can help you in your NGS workflow?

What does automation on the epMotion® 5075 NGS mean for your experiments?

German Language Webinar

Hanna Jerome, Application Specialist Liquid Handling, Eppendorf AG

Ole Menssing, Central Europe, Illumina Cambridge Ltd.

Automated Bioreactor Sampling and Glucose Control

In this webinar, we present a solution for automated glucose monitoring and feeding during a bioprocess run. We integrated an autosampler and an analyzer with the bioprocess control and were able to completely automate glucose control. The design of the automation program is fully customizable, allowing the user to implement their own control strategy with custom nutrient target concentration, custom sampling frequencies, etc.

Join Dr. Stacey Willard, as she shares insights on streamlining bioprocess development efforts through automation.

Key Topics:

Process Automation

Biopharmaceutical Development

Key learning objectives:

Learn how to set up automated nutrient monitoring and feeding

Understand the basics of programming in order to create feedback loops

Get the chance to receive first-hand insights and ask questions during the Q&A session

Everyday culture practice – Improving reproducibility in cell culture

Eukaryotic cell cultures respond to the smallest of influences. Apart from the risk of contamination, minimal changes in cultivation parameters can affect the viability, growth and metabolism of the cells. In this educational webinar we will discuss Mycoplasma test methods, the effects of passage numbers and, the usage of FBS.

Join us to learn about the measures you can take to improve the reproducibility of your experiments by incorporating good cell culture practice into your daily routine.

Pipetting is an every-day task in a cell culture lab. We pipette so often that we don´t actually think about it. This educational webinar gives an insight into how pipetting techniques can improve reproducibility of experiments and decrease the risk of contamination when working with eukaryotic cells. We will discuss the huge potential lying in pipetting techniques to increase the quality of your results.

Key Topics:

Pipetting techniques that can increase the reproducibility of cell-based experiments

Handling of pipetting tools and how this can help to reduce the risk of contamination

Exploring the lab of the future

Have you considered how your lab will operate in five years’ time? Are you preparing for the lab of the future?

The connected home is already here, with multiple products interacting to create a smart household. Tracking of data and events, remote monitoring and automation are all available, creating efficiency in today’s busy life.

The same needs for data management, security and traceability, systems integration and device management exist in the laboratory today.

We’ll be discussing how to begin connecting your laboratory including challenges and considerations. This will include a snapshot of the latest device management software, electronic notebooks and smart equipment.

Participate in our Webinar to discover what is important for your lab today, the future is now reality!

Preventing Contamination in Cell Culture Labs

Contamination is an everyday challenge in cell culture labs. Undetected or ignored contamination and misidentification of cell lines endanger the reliability and reproducibility of experimental results.

In this educational seminar you will learn how to recognize and identify different types of contaminants in cultivated cells. We will discuss how to apply aseptic techniques and preventive hygiene and give practical tips for preventing contamination by incorporating standard procedures (e.g. for introducing new cell lines to the lab and testing for mycoplasma) into your daily culture practice.

Better Safe than Sorry! Safety and Maintenance for Benchtop Centrifuges

Centrifugation is more than just spinning. Like a car in our day-to-day life, centrifuges are useful tools in the laboratory that we can no longer do without. And just like a car, there are a few points to consider in order to prolong the lifetime of your device.

In this webinar you will learn about the most important safety aspects while using a centrifuge, as well as proper maintenance techniques to make sure your laboratory workhorse remains in top condition.

Intuitive and easy programming of Liquid Handling tasks with epMotion

Eppendorf is known for decades of premium quality liquid handling handheld devices – now get in touch with the epMotion® automated liquid handling systems and learn how easy you can automate your everyday pipetting tasks. The webinar is directed to scientists and lab technicians with no or limited experience in automated liquid handling.

We will discuss routine liquid handling tasks and illustrate how fast and effortless they can be transferred to our liquid handling workstations. The range of Eppendorf’s automated liquid handling products will be presented and we demonstrate how their flexibility and features help saving time and increase the reproducibility of your pipetting tasks.

Multivariate Data Analysis in Biopharmaceutical Development

Multivariate Data Analysis (MVA) and Design of Experiments (DoE) are advanced analysis techniques which enable biopharmaceutical companies to improve their data analysis and ultimately accelerate development, reduce process-related costs and shorten the time to market.Given the large number and complexity of variables in biological production processes, MVA has significant advantages over traditional statistical methods.

In this live webcast, we will show applications of MVA and DoE in bioprocess development and illustrate how these powerful tools can be integrated.

The first human cell line HeLa established in 1951 has entered cell culture labs worldwide. It took 20 years until the first data on cross-contamination of human cell lines with HeLa cells were published. Up to now cross-contamination and misidentification of various cell lines is an increasing issue in cell culture labs and is associated with dramatic consequences for research.

In this educative webinar, we will discuss causes and consequences of cell misidentification as well as different methods to check cell identity. Join us to learn more about preventing cell misidentification by incorporating Good Cell Culture Practice into your daily routine.

Everyday culture practice – Improving reproducibility in cell culture

Eukaryotic cell cultures respond to the smallest of influences. Apart from the risk of contamination, minimal changes in cultivation parameters can affect the viability, growth and metabolism of the cells. In this educational webinar we will discuss Mycoplasma test methods, the effects of passage numbers and, the usage of FBS.

Join us to learn about the measures you can take to improve the reproducibility of your experiments by incorporating good cell culture practice into your daily routine.

Aerosols – spinning hazardous samples the safe way!

Imagine you heard from someone that you were surrounded by millions of microorganisms. At home, at work, in the gym, even in nature: Every day they are there. Sounds scary doesn’t it? These microorganisms that surround us are so called airborne biological particles or just bio-aerosols for short and are categorized under the general term aerosols.

Very common laboratory activities produce aerosols and are carried out without even thinking about aerosols, but around the world there are many documented cases of laboratory-acquired infections resulting from the production and inhalation of infectious aerosols. In the daily laboratory work, centrifugation is just one source of aerosols, and you must take adequate precautions when working with hazardous or infectious substances.

In this educational webinar, you will learn what aerosols are, where they occur and how to centrifuge hazardous/infectious samples in a safe way.

Serving ergonomics: 3 steps to healthy working

The only important ergonomic features of pipettes are light weight paired with low operating forces, right? And ergonomic working only means the avoidance of pain?

Basically this is correct, but good ergonomics includes much more. We see ergonomics as a whole concept based on cognitive, physical and organizational aspects, called the three spheres. We give insight into each sphere talking about the importance of body and mind supporting organization of the lab, the workflow and the user. You will understand the background and relevance of ergonomic approaches in everyday and lab life. Furthermore, you will learn about the best seating and standing position during lab work and how to prevent repetitive strain injury after long hours of pipetting.

This webinar can help you design your workplace according to your needs and take the stress and strain out of your daily lab routine.

Pipette Calibration: Don't Risk Your Results!

Pipettes and other liquid handling instruments are widely used devices in all life sciences labs. The transfer of liquids in milliliter and microliter volumes is an essential technique in molecular and cell biology as well as biochemistry and microbiology labs in industry, academia and the healthcare sector.

The importance of accuracy and precision of your liquid handling instruments cannot be overestimated. The smallest inaccuracy may have a severe impact on the experiment and ruin your results. Nevertheless, most users are not aware of this issue and continue working with the affected instruments.

In this educational webinar you will learn why the calibration of liquid handling instruments is important, how calibration is performed in a professional service center and which instruments should be calibrated on a regular basis.

Experimentation involving human stem cells (HSCs) is one of the fastest growing fields in research and development due, in large part, to its potential for revolutionizing human disease treatment. There are multiple HSC platforms being investigated, including human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). Both have distinct advantages and disadvantages, but what they share is a bottleneck at the stage of scale-up, or the ability to produce enough cells for downstream R&D purposes. In this study, we discuss the successful growth of HSCs, both hMSC and hiPSC, in BioBLU® single-use stirred-tank bioreactors from the small (0.3 L) to bench (3 L) scale. In particular, we highlight the production of one billion hMSCs in a single bioreactor, and the culture of hiPSC at the small scale in parallel bioreactors.

Key Topics:

Challenges involved in the differences between culturing MSC and iPSC in bioreactors

The Tip of the Iceberg – How Pipette Tips Influence Asssay Results

We looked below the waterline and got unexpected findings

When was the last time you were upset about non-reproducible results of your experiment? Even though you checked all variables including the pipetting system used in your experiment, you were unable to find the cause.

In many cases the assumption is made that the pipetting system, consisting of pipette and pipette tips, cannot be a source of error as long as the tip fits the pipette. However, even if this is the case, this does not speak to the precision and accuracy of the pipetting result. The international standard ISO 8655:2002 considers pipettes and pipette tips as a system. With good reason!

In this webinar we will show the results of our comprehensive study about tip quality in system with the pipette. At the end of this webinar you will have an overview of several influencing factors impairing your pipetting results when using pipettes and tips. We found that in the same way that only the tip of an iceberg can be seen above water level, a number of other problems with pipette tips rather stay unknown.

From Heart to Mind: Simplified iPS Cell Reprogramming into Cardiac and Neural Cells under Hypoxic Conditions

It has been a decade since Shinya Yamanaka and Kazutoshi Takahashi first reported the Nobel Prize winning discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Since then the technology has created new opportunities in understanding human development and has become an important tool in disease modeling and drug screening. One of the main challenges for new labs adopting iPS cells is the inefficiency of reprogramming methods. In this educational webinar, we will present a 2 step procedure for neuronal and cardiac differentiation along with tips to improve reprogramming efficiency.

Key Topics:

Episomal reprogramming of human fibroblasts

Differentiation of iPSc to functional neurons

Differentiation of iPSc to functional cardiomyocytes

Optimization of culture conditions, media, growth factors and small molecules

You know Eppendorf for decades of high quality liquid handling handheld devices – now get in touch with the epMotion® automated liquid handling systems and learn how easy you can automate your everyday pipetting tasks. The webinar is directed to scientists and lab technicians with no or limited experience in automated liquid handling. We will discuss routine liquid handling tasks and illustrate how fast and effortless they can be transferred to our liquid handling workstation. Eppendorf’s automated liquid handling products will be introduced and we demonstrate how its flexibility and features help saving time and getting better reproducibility of your pipetting tasks.

Key Learning Objectives:

Learn about general liquid handling tasks

Pipetting from tube to plate

Serial dilutions

Hit picking via spread sheet import

Normalization (DNA or Antibodies for assays)

Learn about challenges in frequent lab tasks and how automation helps saving time and getting better reproducibility of your pipetting task

CRISPR is revolutionizing the life sciences. Genome editing using RNA-programmable nucleases opens up a wealth of experimental options. At the same time, it makes creating new cell and animal models faster, easier and cheaper than in the past. Consequently, researchers in areas as diverse as cell/developmental biology, genetics or clinical research are turning to CRISPR as their method of choice.

In this webinar, we will present experimental approaches and real-life examples for creating transgenic animal models using CRISPR. We will provide practical tips and recommendations with a focus on the mouse as the model organism. In addition, we will highlight key considerations for choosing the right micromanipulation instrumentation.

Optimizing a Biosimilar Production Process

The global market for biosimilars is expected to reach US$25 bn by 2020, when more than ten global blockbuster biopharmaceuticals, with sales of more than US$67 bn, will be off-patent. Many of these drugs are human or humanized monoclonal antibodies (hMAbs).

The objective of the research project presented in this webinar was to determine if the three primary methods of production for a typical biosimilar (batch, fed-batch, and perfusion) may be simply and easily executed using a single, benchtop bioprocess control system to allow confident process decisions that are scalable to full production. We compared two perfusion processes. For the fed-batch and perfusion cultivations, we used stirred-tank single-use bioreactors.

This webinar will discuss the outcome of these studies, and will provide an analysis of the benefits of their respective usage in biosimilar production with a particular focus on improving time and cost efficiency.

Pipetting is an every-day task in a cell culture lab. We pipette so often that we don´t actually think about it. This educational webinar gives an insight into how pipetting techniques can improve reproducibility of experiments and decrease the risk of contamination when working with eukaryotic cells. We will discuss the huge potential lying in pipetting techniques to increase the quality of your results.

Key Topics:

Pipetting techniques that can increase the reproducibility of cell-based experiments

Handling of pipetting tools and how this can help to reduce the risk of contamination

Solutions Beyond Water – Successfully Pipetting Problematic Liquids

Transferring liquids is part of almost every workflow in the life sciences. Some liquids like organic solvents, highly viscous or detergent-containing solutions pose special challenges to the experimenter. Pipetting them correctly requires awareness and special tools. Even everyday pipetting tasks such as PCR set-ups or changing cell culture medium have hidden dangers like stickiness of the reaction mix or foam formation of the medium. In this webinar we will highlight major liquid classes and their specific challenges. We will show typical examples for working with these liquids and present tips and tricks for handling them successfully. This webinar will help you achieve better results when working with problematic liquids.

Photometry is a widely used analytical method in molecular biology labs. In many applications like cloning, sequencing, or PCR, you are working with nucleic acid preparations of various sources. Here, knowing the quality and quantity of your starting material is crucial to the reliability and reproducibility of your experimental results. But how do you ensure applying photometric methods correctly?

In this educational webinar, you will learn the basics of photometric nucleic acid determination and which critical factors affect the measurement. We will discuss the correct interpretation of the results and provide tips and tricks for troubleshooting.

Solving the Aggregation Problem of Cells in Suspension Culture

There are many advantages to growing mammalian cells in suspension: adaptability, ease of handling, passaging, and scaling-up for bulk production and research applications. However, problems of cellular aggregation occurs more frequently in suspension culture and can adversely impact the health and productivity of your culture. In this educational webinar, we will present a novel method of developing aggregation-free HEK-293 cells.

The Advantages of Single-Use Vessels in Bioprocessing

Bioprocessing is the study of living organisms used within the manufacturing process, such as the production of biofuels and pharmaceuticals. This webinar will discuss the role of single-use technology across a wide variety of processes, including shear sensitive cell cultures, robust microbial applications, and adherent cell line development.Kevin Voll, Product Manager at Eppendorf, will discuss:

An overview of previous experience in and traditional methods of fermentation.

The benefits of the unique design of BioBLU vessels for benchscale single-use, such as effective mixing and mass transfer in both cell culture and microbiology.

Graduate from Shaker to Fermentor

Most cell biologists culture cells in dishes and shake flasks to produce proteins and biological molecules; however the production of these substances in large quantities creates a bottleneck.Bioreactors represent an alternative method to cultivate cells in large quantities. Bioreactors provide a greater flexibility to scale up cell culture. Bioreactors can be used for a wide range of applications including: fermentation, stem cell culture, strain selection and optimization, bioprocess development, transfections, and screening, media optimization, producing monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, and recombinant proteins. Please join us for this webinar as we discuss the advantages of using bioreactor to scale up your culture.

Who Should Attend: Cell Culture Scientists, Bioengineering and Bioprocess Engineers who are working with:

Solving the Aggregation Problem of Cells in Suspension Culture

There are many advantages to growing mammalian cells in suspension: adaptability, ease of handling, passaging, and scaling-up for bulk production and research applications. However, problems of cellular aggregation occurs more frequently in suspension culture and can adversely impact the health and productivity of your culture. In this educational webinar, we will present a novel method of developing aggregation-free HEK-293 cells.

Substances leaching out of plastic consumables – so-called “leachables” – are still frequently underestimated in laboratory workflows. While possible effects of leachables are routinely taken into account in pharmaceutical or food research, this topic is still underrepresented in the majority of life science applications. Recent scientific evidence shows however that leachables can significantly affect experiments and pose a likely source of error in many assay systems for example, by inhibiting enzyme activities in bioassays or falsifying nucleic acid quantification.

This educational webinar presented by Eppendorf and hosted by LabRoots provides a comprehensive overview of what leachables are and their role in laboratory workflows as well as gives recommendations on how to:

Controlling Expansion and Cardiomyogenic Differentiation

To harness the potential of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), abundant provision of their differentiated progenies is required. During this webinar we present how hPSC expansion as matrix-independent aggregates in suspension culture (3D) was successfully combined with cardiomyogenic differentiation. A multi-well screening approach was scaled-up to stirred-tank bioreactors applying controlled feeding strategies (Batch and Cyclic Perfusion) followed by differentiation.

Optimized conditions in 100 mL cultivations enabled the production of 40 million cardiomyocytes (>80% purity), the majority of which displayed ventricular-like action potentials and were directly applicable for bioartificial cardiac tissue formation, a potential strategy for heart repair, drug discovery and safety pharmacology.

Learning Objectives:

Learn about challenges in up-scaling hPSC suspension cultures and the latest achievements using stirred-tank bioreactors.

Understand the role of bioreactor design for cell aggregate formation and

Learn about tools and process parameters for controlled cultivation of stem cell cultures.